Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Konnichi wa!

Today I had the most wonderful surprise! My tea group on Ravelry held a Valentine's swap and today my box arrived from my swap partner. My box had traveled a long, long, loooong distance - it was from Japan!!!

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It was packed to the brim with wonderful things! Here you can see two skeins of soft 100% wool lace weight yarn, a tin of tea, a box of "mochi" chocolates, and 3 exotic Kit Kat bars.

The tea is so lovely (well, Everything is so lovely!!). It is from a tea company I've never heard of before: Tea Pi O. Their website says that they want to present the "Soul of Japan" through their authentic teas. They also have an Haiku contest on their front webpage. I was tempted, but haven't tried it out yet. My swap partner also sent me a package of green tea "sticks". I haven't opened the package, so I am just imagining that these are pencils of tea with tiny steeping holes in one end for brewing in a tea mug. These will be fun for work!

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It's wondrous really how everyday things are so unique and unusual in other countries. I would love to go to Japan, and not just for the Kit Kats, either!

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Oh, these aren't the ordinary Kit Kat bars! One is an Apple Kit Kat, one is an orange fruit Kit Kat that looks like it has black sesame seeds in it, but they are probably the fruit's seeds - maybe passion fruit? ...and the 3rd is dark chocolate with something in it - it looks from the picture on the wrapping like it's either coffee with a dumpling in it or bean soup. Haha! I can't wait to figure these out! But I must wait because there were 3 miniature ones in mocha flavour and I ate them right up - One! Two! Three!

There are many other wonderful things in this box, including a beautifully wrapped box of "Mochi Chocolate" - silver rice paper, green paper ribbon, Japanese seals.... all so elegant... and on top of everything else: four (4!!) little charms for my cell phone: the Sanrio purple doggie, the Katamari Damacy prince, a chocolate covered donut, and (my favorite) the Little Burnt Bun!

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There was a mystery in the box, too. Does anyone have an idea what this is:

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Do I eat it as is, or does it need to be cooked or soaked or grated or dipped??? Well, even if I don't get an answer, I'm going to try it out very soon!

What a wonderful box! And on top of that, it's "Top Chef" night! and... it's snowing.....

Arigatou, Swap Friend!!!

3 comments:

Logospilgrim, the quiet professor said...

Oh, how delightful! Thank you so much for sharing, most beloved :-)

Anonymous said...

that is an awesome swap package. how lucky are you to get a katamari charm? amazing. on that note, that last package kinda looks like those dried squids you roll up in katamari. i have no idea if i'm right, but that's what it looks like to me. you'll have to let us know what it is when you find out.

Unraveling Sophia said...

My swap partner wrote to me after I tried them - they are dried sweet potato! haha - everything is so exotic, I'm loving it!